Bad Call On Recommended Products

I don't know plastics very well these days so I chose to use the guidelines recommended in the fin construction for the Estes Saturn V instructions. :y:
Boy was THIS a mistake. They suggest using a liquid plastic cement on this plastic, which actually works on this kind of plastic BUT, with so little area gripping these fin assemblies together it's a MAJOR BAD CALL. Some of you already know I'm beefing up my Saturn V wraps and such with what I'm calling POXYFOAM and the fins are no exception here. It would seem I should have gone with my gut instincts and epoxied these buggers together...BUT NOOOOOO! I joined the edges with the liquid plastic cement instead. They sat overnight curing. While I was bringing down the excess flanges tonight they started to separate.......I would honestly say that this is the least qualified product for this kind of construction. I gave up any hope for the rest of the fins and just effortlessly separated the remaining 3. PIECE OF CAKE!....to say the least. Tomorrow I'll do the right thing. To you that have success with this product, TOUCHE' I'll never buy it again.

Gotta tell ya, I only use AMBROID-Pro Weld -on plastic parts these days. melts them together, won't seperate,leaves a nice beaded seam to sand down

Thanks for the tip hornet. I'll keep that in mind. For now I'll have to go with epoxy because it'll also work well with the Poxyfoam.

+1 what Hornet Driver said - the Testors stuff is fine for cementing styrene to styrene, but most of what Estes ships these days is, i believe, ABS. Testors cement has no effect on ABS (that's why it was never recommended for Plastruct parts). ProWeld works with Styrene, Butyrate, ABS and Acrylics. Best all around stuff since Tenax went extinct!

gpoehlein said:

+1 what Hornet Driver said - the Testors stuff is fine for cementing styrene to styrene, but most of what Estes ships these days is, i believe, ABS. Testors cement has no effect on ABS (that's why it was never recommended for Plastruct parts). ProWeld works with Styrene, Butyrate, ABS and Acrylics. Best all around stuff since Tenax went extinct!

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Uh oh..Tenax is dead? I live with that stuff building scale replicas and commercial displays per custom order. I've only got two bottles left. Is Proweld as good/easy to use?

fyrwrxz said:

Uh oh..Tenax is dead? I live with that stuff building scale replicas and commercial displays per custom order. I've only got two bottles left. Is Proweld as good/easy to use?

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Far as I know, yes. My LHS says it is no longer available. Of course that might mean that his distributor doesn't carry it any more, but I had heard that it is no longer available from other sources. I find that the ProWeld is just about as good. It cemented the fin halves of my Estes Liberty Bell 7 Mercury Redstone without any issues and it did seem to attack/dissolve the plastic the way the Tenax does (yeah, I've got about a quarter bottle left and I'm saving that for REAL special occasions! )

Thankfully my LHS still has Tenax 7....I bought him out :wink:

I like using Tenax & Ambroid Pro Weld applied with the use of a Touch `N Flow applicator....it`s the only way to go (yup ,how can you tell I build scale plastic aircraft LOL)

I would never use that stuff you bought (sorry about your woes...) or that stuff in the orange tube AND NEVER that hippie left wing child safe non-toxic crap in the blue tube.....smells like oranges.I mean, who glues plastic with a friut salad

Paul T

For gluing plastic stuff, I use Weldon 3. It was designed for cementing plexiglas. Works great on styrene, but don't know what it'll do to ABS. I also use a Touch -n-flow. Weldon 3 will work on Estes plastic fin units, like those used on the Firehawk. Was my 4 year old's first rocket, I used Weldon 3 to glue those fins together.

gpoehlein said:

Far as I know, yes. My LHS says it is no longer available. Of course that might mean that his distributor doesn't carry it any more, but I had heard that it is no longer available from other sources. I find that the ProWeld is just about as good. It cemented the fin halves of my Estes Liberty Bell 7 Mercury Redstone without any issues and it did seem to attack/dissolve the plastic the way the Tenax does (yeah, I've got about a quarter bottle left and I'm saving that for REAL special occasions! )

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According to Micromark, ProWeld and Tenax are the same thing. They also sell something called "Same Stuff" that is... the same stuff as Tenax...

Chris

FYI RE Weld-on 3:

Do you live in Southern California? This glue is illegal to use in Los Angeles, Riverside, San Bernardino and Orange counties by the Air Pollution Control office. Please choose Weld-On #4.

According to the IPS (manufacturer) website.

chrisudy said:

According to Micromark, ProWeld and Tenax are the same thing. They also sell something called "Same Stuff" that is... the same stuff as Tenax...

Chris

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Ambroid = Methylene Chloride

Tenax = Butyl Acetate